Focused Operations Management

Chapter 17. Quality Management and Process Control

One of the major breakthroughs in management over the past decades is in the area of quality management and process control. Today, quality is one of the most important factors in the competitive environment of any organization.

Poor quality does have a very negative effect on the value of an organization, both by contributing to a decrease in income and an increase in expenses. The opposite is also true—good quality has positive effects on income and expenses.

Quality should be viewed as an important value enhancer and as a tool for improving processes, products, and services. This chapter presents a goal‐oriented business approach to quality and process control. We show that good quality and a reduction of expenses can be achieved simultaneously by utilizing a number of different approaches:

• Operational approach

• Economic approach

• Customer approach

• Uniformity (consistency) approach

Operational Approach

This approach, characterized by Crosby (1979), states that quality means conformance to requirements. A product, service, or prototype has quality only if it conforms to the requirements dictated by the customer. According to this definition, there is no difference in the quality of a brand new Rolls Royce that meets customer requirements or a VW beetle (an older model) that was manufactured to meet all of its required specifications. Service provided at a fast‐food chain like McDonald's can be considered high quality if it meets standards ...